Juneteenth Celebration!
UNITE HERE Local 100 celebrates Juneteenth! June 19, 1865, marks the date in which the news of emancipation reached the last group of enslaved individuals. We acknowledge that nobody is free until everybody is free. Therefore, UNITE HERE Local 100 stands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and recognize that we must continue to fight until we are all free!
Local 100 Celebrates Today’s Immigration Victory!
UNITE HERE applauds today’s Supreme Court decision preventing the Trump administration from shutting down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects hundreds of thousands of individuals who came to the United States as children. Under DACA, 800,000 immigrants have received work authorizations, including many hospitality workers and their families.
“DACA represents an opportunity for people like me to fulfill our dreams: to live, work, study, and raise our children in the United States—our home—without the fear of deportation,” said a Celica Valdez, housekeeper in Monterey, CA and President of UNITE HERE Local 483, “This is a victory that was one only after years of fighting alongside fellow immigrants, DACA recipients, and my union family.”
It is also important to recognize in this time of national uprising against racial injustice that Black undocumented immigrants face increased incidents of police brutality and are more likely to be deported. Protecting DACA is one way to protect these individuals and all immigrants, but there is still work to be done.
Our nation must still achieve legalization with a path to citizenship for all Dreamers as well as those with Temporary Protected Status, Deferred Enforced Departure, and those who are undocumented. Last year, Congress passed the Dream and Promise Act, and now the Senate must take it up and pass permanent protections for immigrants.
So, we celebrate a week of very positive Supreme Court decisions that benefit our immigrant and LGBTQ siblings. And while this has been a week of victory, there remains a racist and anti-immigrant administration in the White House. UNITE HERE remains as committed as ever to organize to defeat Trump at the ballot box this November. Sí se puede.